APPARATUS FOR THE EXTRACORPOREAL TREATMENT OF BLOOD

摘要

An apparatus for the extracorporeal treatment of blood comprising an extracorporeal blood circuit (2), a pump (6) configured to provide fluid displacement within the extracorporeal blood circuit, and a reaction chamber (8) connected to the extracorporeal blood circuit and configured to receive blood or plasma from the circuit and treat the blood or plasma. The reaction chamber comprises a protease enzyme immobilized to a support, in which the protease enzyme is specific for, and capable of irreversibly cleaving, a human C5a present in the blood or plasma, wherein the abundance of the human C5a in the treated blood or plasma is less than that in the untreated blood or plasma. The apparatus finds utility in the extracorporeal treatment of blood from patients with inflammatory conditions, especially auto-immune disease and sepsis.

主权项

1. A method for the extracorporeal treatment of blood, the method comprising removing blood or a blood fraction from a patient and reacting the blood or blood fraction with a protease enzyme that is specific for and capable of irreversibly cleaving functional C5a, thereby reducing an abundance of functional C5a in the blood or blood fraction, wherein the protease enzyme is immobilised to a support.